They were training for the worst in Hingham

Monday

Apr 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 28, 2008 at 12:51 AM

A mock disaster in Hingham helped police officers and firefighters learn what they have to do to get ready for the real thing.

Kristen Walsh

There were no screeching brakes, no crunching metal, no real blood. But as far as police and firefighters were concerned, the scene at Water and Station streets Sunday morning was that of a deadly train collision.

At 8:37 a.m., a 911 call went out over police and fire radio frequencies reporting a collision of a bus and a train at the Water Street railroad crossing in Hingham. Immediately following that message were the words “This is a drill.”

In conjunction with the MBTA, the Hingham Fire Department held a mass-casualty drill, and staged a crash of a Greenbush commuter rail train, a Hingham school bus and a car to prepare for an emergency that could occur on the train line.

Train service was shut down for the duration of the drill, but bus service was provided to passengers between stops. In less than three hours, the scene was cleared, all “victims” either treated or taken to local hospitals, and train service was up and running.

Officials have been preparing for the drill for months, Hingham police Lt. Michael Peraino said, but in light of last month’s commuter train crash in Canton, the drill seemed especially timely.

“The object is to get the fire and police department familiarized with the protocols of a train accident,” Peraino said.

The fire department asked for volunteers to play victims. They had an overwhelming response and chose 50 people to be placed in two cars of the train, on the school bus and in the overturned sedan. The volunteers ranged in ages from small children with their parents to elderly Hingham residents.

At a class on Thursday, the “victims” were told what injuries they would act out, and they met at Hingham High School early Sunday morning to be taken to the crash site.

Victims were made up with fake blood on various body parts. Some of the makeup was more graphic, including one woman who was given graphic abdominal injuries, which witnesses said looked particularly gruesome.

Staged injuries ranged from minor cuts and scrapes to asthma attacks and a heart attack. Ten victims were taken to South Shore Hospital and 10 to Quincy Medical Center, where doctors and nurses participated in the drill and treated the patients.

Peraino said this number, while good training for paramedics and hospital staff, was low compared to the 150 people who were taken to local hospitals after the Canton train collision March 26.

Fire engines, ambulances and police vehicles from Norwell, Scituate, Hull, Cohasset, Weymouth, Braintree, the MBTA police and the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department all responded from various locations in Hingham, where they were strategically placed to simulate actual response times for their departments.

Police officers, saw horses and police tape cordoned off the crash scene. Several times, bystanders who did not know it was a drill were asked to move back.

MBTA personnel were asked to assess aspects of the drill and will report their findings to the towns involved to show what was done well and what could be improved on.

James Sheard, Hingham’s senior EMS coordinator and drill liaison for the fire department, said everyone involved could learn a lesson from the drill. The three areas that usually have the most problems in such an emergency would be communication, asset management and accountability, or keeping track of members of various departments, he said.

Hingham Fire Chief Mark Duff said communication was a problem because of the different radio frequencies departments use. He said Hingham town meeting voters will be asked Monday to approve money to convert Hingham police and fire frequencies to a more compatible system.

“My initial reaction was that it went well,’ Duff said, “but the real truth will come out in our debriefings.”

The Patriot Ledger

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